Andrew Cooper, founder of the polling company Populus and Downing Street's director of political strategy, took fifth place, with Lord Justice Leveson and Robert Jay QC in joint eighth position.

The top 50 list reflected the two most important events of the last year: the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Bradley Wiggins, awarded a knighthood in the new year honours and his fellow cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, reached 15th place, while Mo Farah, the athlete, made it to 34th following his two gold medals.

The Prince of Wales beat his sons into 12th place, while Prince Harry made it to 18th after a year that included serving his country in Afghanistan and the publication of naked holiday photographs.

A spokesman for GQ magazine said it had consulted with a "star chamber from various industries" that included Matthew Freud, the public relations executive, Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, Sir Philip Green, the businessman, Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, Sir Richard Branson, the businessman, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, codirector of the Serpentine Gallery.

She said that after the Leveson Inquiry, "untrammelled power like that wielded by Rupert Murdoch" had been replaced by "institutional scrutiny and new–media guruism".

"In reaction there has been a resurgence of the old guard," she said in a statement. "Meanwhile with the rise in power of web gossip factories, businessmen are much less willing to court the public eye. The flamboyant tycoons of the past have been replaced by more retiring figures."

Mr Johnson, a Daily Telegraph columnist, will be announced winner of GQ's Most Influential Man in Britain 2013 in its February edition, on sale tomorrow.